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An evolving agenda for environmental, health, and safety management in mining
Published in Natalia Yakovleva, Edmund Nickless, Routledge Handbook of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development, 2022
Luis E. Sánchez, Daniel M. Franks
Water pollution by cyanide is a risk wherever this reagent is used in gold mining. Leaking storage tanks, seepage from leach pads, and accidents during transportation are the main sources. After a number of events, an International Cyanide Management Code (ICMI, 2016) was developed, setting standards for handling, transport, emergency response, and others.
Mining and the Environment
Published in Mritunjoy Sengupta, Environmental Impacts of Mining, 2021
In some gold mining operations, gold-containing ore is crushed and, then if necessary, heated and oxidized in roasters to remove sulphur and carbonaceous materials that affect gold recovery. Mercury that is present in the ore is vapourized in roasters, and they are some of the largest sources of mercury emitted to the atmosphere.
Investing in engineering, research and education in Africa to derive a roadmap for ensuring local digital mining success
Published in Christoph Mueller, Winfred Assibey-Bonsu, Ernest Baafi, Christoph Dauber, Chris Doran, Marek Jerzy Jaszczuk, Oleg Nagovitsyn, Mining Goes Digital, 2019
A report by the World Gold Council found that gold mining contributed some USD78 billion in gross economic value added and 530,000 direct jobs in the 15 leading gold producing countries [7]. Additionally, large numbers of indirect jobs are also generated. For example, in Ghana, one mining position supports an estimated 28 other jobs and livelihoods in the country and in Peru about 19 jobs. In South Africa, mining supports about 1.4 million direct, indirect and induced jobs, and each of these supports on average around nine dependents [7].
Environmental Alchemy: Mercury-Gold Amalgamation Mining and the Transformation of the Earth
Published in Ambix, 2023
The nineteenth-century small-scale gold rushes that fuelled the Castellani gold work are most visible today in the activity of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Global South, a present-day example of environmental alchemy in action.66 Artisanal and small-scale gold mining uses mercury, quite a lot of it. The consequences of the two metals’ interrelationship play out in real time, and typically fall hardest on subsistence livelihoods in low-income communities. The miner (in Zambia, Perú, Indonesia, or elsewhere) will search for flakes of gold panned from waterways or sifted from crushed rock. Seeing glints of gold, the miner will (for example) unstopper a plastic bottle containing mercury and pour some of the silvery liquid metal onto the dirt and gold specks. The chemical reaction is immediate as the mercury-gold amalgam forms. The miner next fires a butane torch and trains the flame on the amalgam. The mercury rapidly vaporises, leaving behind a spongy gold lump. From this point, the gold will leave the hands of the miner and start to work its way into global supply chains. Gold from artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity fulfils approximately 20% of the global demand for jewellery, central bank reserves, investments, and all sorts of technologies and electronic devices.67
The soil-plant transfer of risk elements within the area of an abandoned gold mine in Libčice, Czech Republic
Published in Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, 2018
Martina Umlaufová, Jiřina Száková, Jana Najmanová, Jiřina Sysalová, Pavel Tlustoš
As observed in many countries, gold mining can lead to degradation of the local landscape, and can affect soil structure, physicochemical, and biological properties (including bacterial, structural, and functional diversity). The exploitation of gold mines can also result in the pollution of the environment with the chemicals used for gold mining; typically cyanide and mercury.[1–4] The surroundings of both former and active gold mines are characterized by the presence of Hg-bearing (originating from amalgamation process), and As-bearing (from As minerals accompanying the gold-bearing veins and rocks) mine tailings.[5–6] Also, Yun et al.[7] considered As, Cd, and Pb as elements connected with gold mining activity. For these reasons, the potential effect of gold mining on the surrounding environment has been intensively investigated in the last decade.